Business Consulting with Dr. Philip Copitch
CopitchInc.com
FAQ: Therapy with Dr. Philip Copitch
Dr. Philip Copitch
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology
Business Consultant
Author and Educator
How can Dr. Copitch help my business?
Issue Oriented
Oregon Professional Building - Downtown Redding, CA
1650 Oregon St. Suite 218 • Redding CA 96001
Conveniently located across the street from the OLD post office • Map to Dr. Copitch's office
By appointment only, please call: (530) 244-7528
How can Dr. Copitch help my business?
How can Dr. Copitch help my business? / Issue Oriented / Problem Solving / People Motivating / A How-To-Approach to Profit and Time
A story: The psychology of accomplishing a task:
There are two chiropractors, Dr. Bob and Dr. Tom. They have been best friends since first grade. In fact, since fourth grade the two friends have had a powerful and mostly friendly rivalry. In high school Bob and Tom both played basketball and wrestled. In collage, both young men were on the same basketball team. Both did very well in sports and in classes. But, Bob always seemed to do a little bit better.
The young men both chose the same chiropractic college. Both young men were excellent students. Each helping the other throughout graduate school. But, Bob did just a little bit better.
After graduation Dr. Bob and Dr. Tom decided to return back home and both quickly established a thriving practice. Their friendly rivalry continued and was a common inside joke between them. A few years into private practice, both men met their own Ms. Right. Their double wedding was simply perfect.
Over the next ten years the rivalry continued.
One evening, Dr. Tom told his wife, "Tomorrow Bob and I are planning to cut wood together. No matter what, I'm going to cut more. I know it's silly, but it's starting to drive me nuts that Bob is always a little bit better at everything than I am. Well, not tomorrow, I'm going to cut and stack wood like a machine."
The next morning, the two friends were off to get wood. On the way Tom said, "Boy am I feeling good, I'm going to have to teach you how to cut and stack wood."
"Teach me, huh," Bob teased back, "I'm pretty sure I'm up to the challenge."
After a few minutes of clever banter, the two men set a simple bet. Whoever cut and stacked the most wood wins. The looser buys dinner plus had to tell the wives why he was buying dinner.
Tom was determined to win. He chopped and chopped. Stacked and stacked. He worked strong and steady and whenever he saw Bob take a break, be felt regenerated. He really wanted to win this bet. He worked away refusing himself a break. He told himself, "I'll rest at dinner, relaxed in glory after I win."
At the end of the day, Tom was astonished to find that Bob chopped and stacked two cords of wood. He was dumbfounded.
"How could that be?" Tom exclaimed, "I worked non stop. I saw you take little breaks throughout the day. I killed myself to stack one and a half cords of wood! How did you do two cords in the same amount of time?
Bob could see the frustration in his lifelong friend's face so he explained, "When I was taking my breaks I rested my muscles and sharpened my ax."
Dr. Copitch can help you
sharpen your ax!
Issue Oriented
One of the biggest ways Dr. Copitch can help your business is to help define what the problem truly is. It is very common for a business owner or manager to state concerns like: "My staff is out of control. If I'm not there every second, nothing gets done." or "How come I can't get Distribution and Accounting to stop bickering?"
Dr. Copitch helps you to define the problem specifically and set up a "treatment" program to solve the problem. Usually the treatment program is relatively simple.
A frustrated family restaurant owner once explained to Dr. Copitch, "We have been in the same location for twenty years, but for the last year or so, we have been loosing our customer base. I spend thousands each month on ads, but we are still loosing footing every month."
Dr. Copitch evaluated the business, looked at the employees, advertising, menu, and public opinion. Two weeks later he presented his findings, "Your company is in great shape. The public loves your food, the staff are well trained and motivated, your doing everything well. But, the trees and shrubs around your building are so big your signage is lost to the public. Even though the neighborhood knows your here, they don't think of you when they are hungry. I recommend you trim the trees and bush, repaint your signs, and cut your monthly advertising by 75 percent." Dr. Copitch developed a low cost local door hanger campaign and cut out the expensive newspaper ads.
By defining a problem you can put your efforts into solving the problem.
How can Dr. Copitch help my business? / Issue Oriented / Problem Solving / People Motivating / A How-To-Approach to Profit and Time
Problem Solving
The old saying is that there are hundreds of ways to skin a cat. That may be so, but only the best way is really worth doing. With over twenty years of clinical experience, Dr. Copitch brings the science of psychology into the business world. Psychology, by definition means the study of behavior. In the business world, knowing how and why people do the things they do, solves problems. It is important to know how employees interact, how customers behave and how to get people to want to interact with your company.
Recently, during a business meeting, a manager asked the president of the company, "I'm sure that he (Dr. Copitch) is a good shrink, but what can he offer my department ... I don't have any psychopaths who work for me!"
"Well," said the president looking with a grin at Dr. Copitch, "What can you do for the sales department that Robinson here hasn't already tried?"
"If you don't mind me being a little flippant," Dr. Copitch smiled, "If I can motivate an adult to give up crank or a teenage runaway to let her parents parent her. In comparison, it does seem a little easy to help your sales team close more sales. To put it bluntly, I will teach your sales department to solve problems, to motivate others and to build healthy relationships. The nice side effect of problem solving, motivation and healthy relationships—is increased sales."
People Motivating
Business is people. It doesn't matter what your business is, people need to be motivated. You need to get your customers to choose your product. You need your staff to let your customers interact with your company smoothly. You need your staff to feel pride in their work and pride in their company. Simply stated, if you don't motivate people you're going out of business.
Dr. Copitch uses hundreds of psychologically sound "tricks of the trade" to encourage people to act in a positive way towards your company and products. Dr. Copitch often says, "You can't make a child pick up her Legos—you have to help her to want to pick up her Legos. In business, you have to instill want into your employees and customers."
A How-To-Approach to Profit and Time
Most business owners make themselves so important in their business that in five to ten years their business can't run without their minute to minute supervision. This is a huge problem that can lead to burnout and personal health problems. Dr. Copitch explains, "Too often I meet hard working entrepreneurs who have lost track of who owns the company. Often the company owns the founder. This isn't entrepreneurship, it is servitude. The owner finds themselves enslaved to the employees, the customers, and the worries."
Dr. Copitch teaches how to get control of your time as well as increase your profitability. "Brain power," Dr. Copitch explains, "is far more valuable than muscle power. I often see, for example, an attorney who can bill at $250 per hour spending time looking for a file. No matter how important that file is, a company can't afford to spend $500 to locate it. That number is not a mistake," Dr. Copitch points out, "it is really a $500 turn of events. Two hundred and fifty dollars for the attorney's time and $250 in lost billable work. Plus, the time searching for the file adds to frustration and a longer work day. The attorney may have to work later into the night to get the job done or put off other work originally planned for today. This does not take into account the discomfort on the home front when daddy is still at work and not at the family dinner table. I can't even put a price tag on that loss."
Work is a portion of ones life; Dr. Copitch teaches how to work hard and how to play just as hard.
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